In another BEXAsia first, SE Asia’s first eco-products database was launched today at the IGBC/BEX Asia Exhibition. Ecospecifier SE Asia was launched by Brisbane based Ecospecifier Global as the latest in the company’s regional databases of third party verified, green building product databases.
Ecospecifier assesses products using life cycle based assessment processes that ensure that products have little or no health or ecotoxicity impacts by assessing every product down to less than 0.1% of composition. They also look for biodiversity, resource and pollution impacts such as Greenhouse emissions and calculate the carbon content of products.
The tool is designed for architects, interior designers, builders, contractors, engineers, sustainability consultants, specifiers, project and facilities managers and all other types of designers and specifiers.
The most important issue for the local green building industry and that should interest the new Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) as well as other GBCs in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam they assess each product for relevance and compliance to the Green Building Rating Schemes such as the Singapore BCA’s GreenMark and Malaysian GBC’s Green Building Index cutting industry professionals green building product research time by up to 90%.
Interestingly, whether you are an experienced green professional or novice, you don’t even have to know of a product’s existence or purpose. You only have to know what aspect or ‘Credit ‘of the relevant rating tool you are wanting to achieve, because you can search by individual rating tool and individual Credit and then ‘Search’ - every product that helps the designer’s building meet that credit, comes up in a single search.
Ecospecifier was originally invited to Singapore by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) who were interested to see how it could support the growth of the Singapore Green Building sector. Response to the tool has seen strong support from key Green Building Council members from Singapore Malaysia and Indonesia.
According to Ecospecifier Global’s Technical Director Australian multi-award winning architect and green building consultant David Baggs, ‘The move into SE Asia was in the end decided because of the dynamic nature of the green building market and the growth in green building councils and rating schemes – the key factors for green building growth’ According to Mr Baggs ‘the fact is, where green buildings are needed, so are green products. Also… people are sick of Greenwash- where the words seem to say the product is green but it is not. Ecospecifier cuts out the greenwash and makes sure the products deliver what they claim. This is essential for green buildings to succeed and to minimise the risk for professionals moving into green building. We are keen to support the SGBC in their need for a product database’ he said.
Ecospecifier Global has similar websites in Australasia, Middle East and South Africa and is launching in China and Hong Kong in March and can be visited at BEXAsia until Friday evening at Suntec Exhibition Centre.
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